This meeting will bring together leaders in studies of the structure and functions of mononuclear phagocytes and dendritic cells; and of their interactions with viral and bacterial pathogens, apoptotic cells, abnormal (e.g., amyloid) and/or chemically modified (e.g., glycated) extracellular matrix proteins and vascular endothelial cells. It is a rejuvenation in the Keystone format of the Leiden Conference on Mononuclear Phagocytes, conferences which were instrumental in the development of the field in the period 1965 to 1990.